Band:	Pestilence
Album:	Resurrection Macabre
Style:	Technical death metal
Release date:	March 16, 2009
Guest review by:	Deadmeat

01. Devouring Frenzy
02. Horror Detox
03. Fiend
04. Hate Suicide
05. Synthetic Grotesque
06. Neuro Dissonance
07. Dehydrated II
08. Resurrection Macabre
09. HangMan
10. Y2H
11. In Sickness And Death
12. Chemo Therapy [bonus]
13. Out of the Body [bonus]
14. Lost Souls [bonus]

After being inactive for about 15 years Pestilence reunited in 2008. The only person who remained in their line-up was Patrick Mameli (vocals, guitar, songwriter) -(Tony Choy was a member of the band only for two years). When Mameli talked about the new album, he said it would be the "most brutal and technical" release of the band till now. And he was right. But this doesn't mean that Resurrection Macabre is also the band's best release.

I will start by mentioning the disadvantages of the album. The biggest one is the poor complexity in the songwriting. It's not that Resurrection Macabre doesn't have great songs. The problem is that most of the songs consist of just three riffs (one for the verses, one for the choruses and one more for the solos), something that often makes them sound boring. For example, "Synthetic Grotesque" consists of three amazing riffs, which after some time start being tiring, as the song lasts four minutes. A representative example is that the first riff played in that song runs for more than one minute. A lot of discussion has also taken part about the album's production, which is generally very good. The instruments sound very clear, but I have to confess that when hearing Resurrection Macabre with headphones, you may find the production shitty. I don't know why and it is most likely no one does.

Now about the good facts of this album. The riffs may be few and are repeated more than they should, but at least they are very good - generally, Mameli has managed to write really Sick music for this album. Another good thing about the album is the lyrics (in the classic Pestilence pattern, they talk about Death in most of the occasions), but in my opinion, the biggest advantage of Resurrection Macabre is Mameli's vocals. They are way more brutal than his growls in Testimony Of The Ancients and Spheres and manage to make the album sound really sick and violent. Even the way that the album opens is amazing: "Devouring Frenzy" does not start with music or effects, but with Mameli growling two times before the music begins!

In conclusion, we have a nice Death Metal release, Technical and Brutal. A good restart from Pestilence who should learn from their mistakes, especially in songwriting. I'll end by saying that if the riffs written for these 11 songs were used to create no more than 8 or 9 songs, Resurrection Macabre would be a killer album.

Best Songs: "Horror Detox", "Dehydrated II", "Devouring Frenzy" and "In Sickness & Death".